Mike Monroe: L.A. bad, but not fighting mad

For the moment, the Lakers’ problems run deeper than any reported locker room rift between Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.

At tipoff against the Spurs tonight at the AT&T Center it will be Robert Sacre, not Howard, jumping center against Tim Duncan.

Sacre is a 7-foot rookie from Gonzaga who was supposed to be showing off his skills with the L.A. D-fenders at the D-League Showcase in Reno this week. Instead, he must figure a way to defend a 36-year-old future Hall of Famer who typically follows a poor performance (5 for 14 vs. the Hornets) with an extremely focused one.

Wasn’t the Lakers’ season already a big enough ball of bad before Howard, Pau Gasol and reliable reserve big man Jordan Hill hit the injured list, one by one by one, in the space of a few hours Sunday night?

When Mike D’Antoni looks down his bench for frontcourt reserves, he’s going to see only Antawn Jamison, a 3-point specialist in a power forward’s body who has played seven minutes and 44 seconds in the past five games, and Earl Clark, who has played all of 37 minutes this season.

At least the Lakers have a healthy sense of humor.

After a New York tabloid reported an allegation of a locker room confrontation between Bryant and Howard that came close to blows, Bryant posted a humorous photo on his Twitter account that debunked the rumor. It showed the two squaring off on opposite sides of a training room table on which D’Antoni is reposed, reacting in mock horror.

Teams in turmoil don’t joke about such stuff, and if Howard is worried that he hasn’t become BFF with Bryant or any other Lakers, as he recently implied to ESPN Los Angeles, well, he needs to read up about the Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal relationship that was tabloid fodder during some seasons that produced NBA titles.

Building team chemistry is no simple matter, especially on a roster that underwent such an offseason rebuild. There’s a reason Spurs coach Gregg Popovich wants his teams to have a maximum amount of what he calls corporate knowledge. That’s because it comes only when players have been together for a while, and that is also how you grow team chemistry.

The only Lakers who have been together more than two seasons are Bryant, Gasol, Blake, Metta World Peace and Devin Ebanks. The corporate knowledge they acquired together was mostly how to run Phil Jackson’s triangle offense.

That “Twit-pic” Bryant posted may actually prove a catalyst in this chemistry experiment. Nothing eases tension quite like laughter.

For now, physical health is the big Lakers issue, but Howard swears he will be back from his torn labrum sooner than later. Gasol will have to be cautious after being concussed, but it is reasonable to expect him back in days, rather than weeks.

Healthy, the Lakers have too much talent not to put together a couple of decent win streaks before season’s end.

There may be Lakers-hating fans who believe L.A. will be so far back in the playoff race waiting for its bigs to return, it won’t make the playoffs. Some Spurs fans call this wishful thinking.